In case you've never heard of it, Artemis is a starship bridge simulator. What's unique about it is that each player mans a specific station on the bridge, and the computers are networked together.

We played last night for the first time, and it was pretty awesome. I was the helmsman, so it was my job to steer the ship, control speed (warp and sublight) navigate, and manage the main viewer.

My wife was the tactical officer, and it was her job to man the weapons, choose the right ordinance for the attack, and had the ability to convert certain torpedo types into extra energy.

My son was the engineer, and his job was to manage ship's power systems, direct damage control teams and manage shield output.

My friend was the captain, and he controlled no systems but was in overall command.

We also had a new guy join us and he handles the science station, which allowed him to scan other ships and space phenomena. Finally, there's a communications station for handling comms between the ship and other vessels/stations.

We rocked it out last night for a couple of hours. We got into one battle that was particularly bad, and it really sounded like an episode of Star Trek.

"Lock all weapons on that battleship!"
"Captain, forward shields down to 22%! She won't take much more!"
"Helm, get us out of here! Warp 1!"
"Warp drive not responding, Captain!"
"Engineering, get that warp drive online!"
"We're losing power Captain! Batteries down to 6%!"

Dude... we somehow won that fight. It was truly awesome.

"He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool, and he who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool."
—Brigham Young

"Don't take refuge in the false security of consensus."
—Christopher Hitchens

Yeah we configured it so Dolly and I were together at the same table, two of the players were a few miles away at the one guy's house, and my son was up in PA so it was basically a WAN. All we had to do was have the hosting player open some ports on his router.

"He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool, and he who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool."
—Brigham Young

"Don't take refuge in the false security of consensus."
—Christopher Hitchens